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Autodesk Showcase 2014 Readme
Autodesk® Showcase® software provides easy-to-use presentation and design exploration tools for architects, designers, engineers, and marketing professionals. With Showcase 2014, users can quickly transform 3D CAD models into interactive walk-throughs and presentations, making it easier to evaluate aesthetic and design alternatives in real time with their peers, constituents, and customers. This readme describes known limitations and issues in Autodesk Showcase 2014. It is strongly recommended that you read this document before you install this release. For reference, you should save this readme to the hard drive or print a copy. For further important notes and workarounds, see the Showcase Knowledge Base at http://www.autodesk.com/showcase-support-enu.
Contents Installation Notes .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Where to Find More Information ................................................................................................................. 1 Feature Limitations and Notes...................................................................................................................... 2
Installation Notes For general Autodesk product and Showcase-specific installation information, see the Showcase Installation Overview and FAQ. Important: If you are installing Autodesk Showcase Professional software or want to run Showcase in Kiosk (Presenter) mode, read the following sections of the Showcase Installation Overview and FAQ, under Showcase Installation Options:
Install Showcase Professional Run Showcase in Kiosk Mode
Where to Find More Information For system requirements, go to:
http://www.autodesk.com/showcase-systemreq-2014-enu
To see the Showcase Learning Path, go to:
http://www.autodesk.com/showcase-learningpath
For a summary of new features in 2014, see the following section in the online help:
http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/showcase2014/en_us/files/Help_WhatsNew.htm
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For an updated copy of this readme, go to:
http://www.autodesk.com/showcase-readme-2014-enu
Feature Limitations and Notes The following are known feature limitations and notes in Autodesk Showcase 2014. Interoperability
Once you have imported Revit files, avoid reloading them. Doing so could cause problems with material assignment, lights, shadows, and more. This also affects Revit 2014 exported FBX files. Issues with normals may occur when importing FBX 2014 files generated from 3ds MAX. Workaround: In 3ds Max, generate files using FBX 2013.3 or earlier. Showcase focal length may not match that of imported Alias files.
Publishing
Publishing to separate PSD layers from the “Realistic with Edges” visual style does not work as expected. To work around this, do the following: 1. If you have not done so already, save your PSD using the “Realistic with Edges” visual style. 2. Switch to the visual style “Both Shadows and Ambient Shadows.” 3. Save a new PSD file with the same size as step 1. 4. Open the new PSD in Photoshop, select everything on the Shadow layer, and paste it into the Realistic with Edges PSD. 5. Delete the old Shadow layer in the Realistic with Edges PSD and make sure that the new Shadow layer is set to Multiply. Saving a PSD file from a dark environment may result in a white outline around geometry. Environments are not included in published images. Workaround: Publish a movie as a sequence of images. HTML5 Web presentations with a resolution higher than 1900x1200 do not display properly on iPads.
Performance
Problems may occur on 32-bit systems, such as: o Switching to ray tracing mode may cause Showcase to stop unexpectedly. o Switching environments in the Technicon sample scene may cause Showcase to stop unexpectedly. With some graphics cards, setting Shadow resolution in the Directional Light and Shadows window to 4096x4096 can cause the system to stop working, requiring a restart.
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Uninstallation
Windows may become unresponsive when uninstalling Showcase. It may automatically restart, but if it does not, do the following: 1. Open the Windows Task Manager. 2. Click the Applications tab. 3. Click New Task at the bottom of the window. 4. In the Create New Task window, type explorer and click OK. In some cases, it may not be possible to uninstall Autodesk Material Libraries.
Environments
It is possible that the HDR image in an environment created with HDR Light Studio will appear flipped in Showcase. To work around this problem, flip the background back as follows: 1. Open HDR Light Studio. 2. In HDR Light Studio, open background properties for the environment. 3. At the bottom of the window that opens, click Flip. 16-bit tiff images may render incorrectly if used as a backplate. Workaround: Convert the image to 32-bit in an image editor. Environments may not switch between slides (if that is set). Workaround: Save the slides as images, then compile them into a movie using third-party software. If you have a normal map applied to an environment, ray tracing may not render the bump correctly.
Materials
The look of Metal Autodesk materials is inconsistent between ray tracing and hardware rendering. Custom reflection maps may make a material look very black in day scenes or white in night scenes. Workaround: Lighten or darken the material using the Reflection brightness slider in the Material Properties window (must be adjusted for each environment). Custom reflection maps may rotate when switching environments if they have different rotations. The transparency color in ray tracing may be incorrect. Workaround: Select Block transparency highlights in Material properties. Some Showcase materials used in version 2012 or older may not look right in 2014, including: 1. Car Paint 2. All Metallic materials 3. All Dark materials 4. Orange Burnt 5. Lacquers
Rendering
There might be noise in some scenes with global illumination, even after several hours of rendering. 3
Shadows
In advanced lighting mode (global illumination), ambient shadows on the ground are not ray traced. In ray tracing, shadows may be too coarse, depending on the tessellation of the object. Lowtessellated objects may show a stepping effect in the shadow. Workaround: Re-tessellate the object at a higher tessellation level. (Cannot be done with FBX models.)
NPR Visual Styles with camera and lighting background properties Non-photorealistic (NPR) visual styles, such as Toon Color, Flat Color, and so on, are not affected by:
Settings in the Lighting tab of the Lighting Environment and Background Properties window Compensation, Highlights, Midtones, Shadows, and Saturation in the Camera Properties window.
Various
In some localized versions of Showcase, such as Korean, indecipherable messages or characters may appear after opening sample scenes or importing models.
Backward compatibility of custom environments Custom environments from Showcase 2012 (or older) may open only partially or not at all in Showcase 2014. This section describes these two situations. Environments in custom libraries are not imported When you create environments in Showcase 2012, they are stored in custom environment libraries by default. No environments in these libraries (custom or otherwise) will be migrated to Showcase 2014. This is true even if they are applied to a scene you are opening in 2014. Showcase 2014 will report that it cannot open the 2012 environments. The workaround to this is to recreate the environments in Showcase 2014. Make sure to give them the same names as they had in Showcase 2012. You can then open the old scenes in Showcase 2014 and the new environments will be found. Custom environments are partially imported if they are not stored in custom libraries If you modified generic 2012 environments, their properties will be partially imported into Showcase 2014, as long as you did not store them in custom environment libraries. Properties that will not be migrated to 2014:
Lighting alterations (image-based lighting maps) Any exposure and colorize values
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Autodesk, FBX, Revit, and Showcase are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2013 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
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